How long did the Baião fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 29 August 2020 and 30 August 2020: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 29 August 2020 at 20:37 and declared extinguished on 30 August 2020.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 167 hectares (1.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Teixeira e Teixeiró (168 ha, 6.4 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The fire started in Teixeira e Teixeiró and came within 0.8 km of its centre. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 19.2 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 18, class Moderate.

Where does this data come from?

From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Portugal (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

PT · Portugal · 2020-08-29 → 2020-08-30

Baião fire, August 2020 Teixeira e Teixeiró

Out · last detection 30 Aug 2020, 03:27 UTC

The fire started on 29 August 2020 in Teixeira e Teixeiró, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 167 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality. According to ICNF, it was detected on 29 August 2020 at 20:37 and declared extinguished on 30 August 2020.

It is the 12th largest in Baião since 2016 (of 16 with a page). Number 50 in Portugal in 2020, of 67.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Baião · 2016 União das Freguesias de Campelo e Ovil e Loivos do Monte · 2024 Vila Pouca de Aguiar · 2024 Trancoso · 2025

Burnt area: 167ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 29 Aug 2020 – 30 Aug 2020
Municipalities hit: 1; freguesias
Started on: 29 Aug; 2020
Heat detections: 16; in a single hotspot: 62 MW
Danger at start: 18; Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power: 263MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Aug30 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

30 Aug 2020 · 263 MW · 16

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

19°high

42km/h · peak gust

30%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

32% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 53 ha in 2016.

53 ha Baião fire, August 2016 320 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Teixeira e Teixeiró 723 inhabitants · 0.8 km from the centre where it started

168 ha reached on 30 Aug

6.4 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

What burned

Other natural land99 %
Scrub and transitional woodland1.2 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %

LIC Alvão / Marão PTCON0003

Natura 2000 sites (European Environment Agency, 2024 release) crossed by the perimeter.

Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 29 August 2020 and burned 174 ha (the satellite measured 167 ha).

Baião Teixeira 29 August 2020 · 20:37 174 ha · extinguished on 30 August 2020 · cause: arson

ICNF (Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas). This is the agency’s operational record: its figures may be revised when the year’s statistics are closed.

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day	High	Min. humidity	Peak gust	Danger (FWI)
29 Aug	17.2 °C	40 %	42 km/h	Moderate 18
30 Aug	19.2 °C	30 %	32 km/h	Moderate 18
31 Aug after	21.4 °C	26 %	28 km/h	Moderate 20
1 Sept after	21.6 °C	35 %	36 km/h	High 22
2 Sept after	24.7 °C	26 %	38 km/h	High 24
3 Sept after	27.4 °C	23 %	26 km/h	High 24
4 Sept after	26.4 °C	32 %	35 km/h	High 27
5 Sept after	27.4 °C	26 %	30 km/h	High 26
6 Sept after	26.7 °C	30 %	40 km/h	High 29
7 Sept after	23.2 °C	27 %	53 km/h	High 33
8 Sept after	23.8 °C	22 %	52 km/h	High 32
9 Sept after	25.8 °C	21 %	25 km/h	High 28

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

↔

Before · 22 Aug 2020

After · 6 Sept 2020

Before After

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 29 August 2020 the air beside the fire reached 19 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak19 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1034 µg/m³

WHO 15

272829303112

Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 16Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.

⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.

Date and time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Baião fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 29 August 2020 and 30 August 2020: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 29 August 2020 at 20:37 and declared extinguished on 30 August 2020.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 167 hectares (1.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Teixeira e Teixeiró (168 ha, 6.4 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The fire started in Teixeira e Teixeiró and came within 0.8 km of its centre. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 19.2 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 18, class Moderate.
Where does this data come from?: From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Portugal (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Emergency number: 112 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

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What really happened?

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How we know this

Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 16 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
Compared with ICNF: 174 official ha against 167 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

Where this data comes from

The perimeter and land cover come from the Copernicus European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), measured on MODIS and Sentinel-2 imagery and published under CC BY 4.0. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM3 (CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ slightly from each country’s official figure.

Where it burned